Seib & Wessel: What We’re Reading Wednesday

An anonymous Twitterer famous in national security circles, @natsecwonk, actually was Jofi Joseph, a National Security Council staffer at the White House who was surreptitiously offering a running commentary that sometimes “openly criticized the policies of his White House bosses and often insulted their intellect and appearance.” (He has been fired.) [Daily Beast]

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Sen. Ted Cruz, left, and Mike Lee

While Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has gotten a big welcome from supporters back home, his partner in pushing the defunding of Obamacare, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, has gotten “a cold shoulder” back home, where many in the Republican party blame him for charting a course that they think weakened the party nationally. Business groups are plotting a change to the caucus system for nominating candidates, which helped bring Lee to office. [WSJ]

Marin Cogan (@marincogan) looks at what media said about Texas Sen. Ted Cruz before he came to Washington, and finds it way off the mark — including the argument that his Cuban heritage would bolster the GOP with Hispanic voters. [National Journal]

David Dayen (@ddayen) protests that press coverage of Alan Greenspan‘s new book paints it as “a soul-searching quest for why he missed the greatest economic collapse in decades,” which he calls “a frame that is needlessly obsequious and suggests he was a bystander to the disaster, not a central actor.” [New Republic]

Despite Washington’s shenanigans, the U.S. economic outlook is increasingly rosy, says Irwin Steltzer. Consumers’ finances are better and they’re making big-ticket purchases. Housing and autos are up. Banks are stronger. And there’s the new domestic energy boom. [Weekly Standard]

Harvard’s Robert Stavins argues against the campaign to have universities divest their shares in fossil-fuel companies. “Climate change is fundamentally a scientific, economic, and political challenge. Viewing it as a moral crusade, I fear, will only play into and exacerbate the terrible political polarization,” he says. [Robert Stavins]

With 40,000 books published about John F. Kennedy, Jill Abramson (@JillAbramson) wonders why there are surprisingly few good ones. [New York Times]

Hillary Clinton laid the groundwork for a 2016 run as “New Hillary” last weekend as she declared her support for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, writes Molly Ball (@mollyesque). While her appearance proved how far she has come with the Democratic base, the event’s “naked transactionalism” — McAuliffe was a former fundraiser — also showed the Clintons have not changed at all. [The Atlantic]

In an annual survey of middle-income Americans, Wells Fargo found that 37% expect that they will work until they die. A similarly large number expect to work until they are 80, and that share is rising. The bank finds simply paying bills is “overwhelming” retirement planning for many Americans. [NBC]

A majority of Americans (58%) support legalizing marijuana for the first time since Gallup began polling the issue in 1969. [Gallup]

In developed countries, young firms (five years old or less) accounted for about 20% of nonfinancial business sector employment over the past decade, but generated nearly half of all new jobs. [OECD]

The average published cost for an in-state student to attend a four-year state college rose $247 to about $8,890 annually, the College Board says. The 2.9% increase is the smallest one-year increase in 30 years. [WSJ]

Each Netflix subscriber watches on average 93 minutes per day, making Netflix larger than any single cable network in terms of minutes watched in a household. [CNBC]

Although Netflix shares lost 9% Tuesday, the stock is still up 248% so far this year, better than all but one other stock (Best Buy) in the S&P 500. [WSJ]

Apple CEO Tim Cook says 170 million iPads have been sold in the past 3.5 years. [WSJ]

Amazon has reported less than $2 billion in profit since going public in 1997. Its revenue was more than $60 billion last year. Its shares are up around 150% since mid-2010. [New York Times]

Midsize law firms with 201-500 lawyers have increased their share of the work that generates more than $1 million in legal bills over the past three years, to 41% from 22%. [WSJ]

The share of the world population age 60-plus is projected to nearly double in 2050. [AP]

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.